The world’s top six players made it safely through to round two as the Ladbrokes Players Championship Finals kicked-off in Coventry on Friday.<\/p>\n
All 64 players were in first round action, split across two stages, on a busy opening day of the tournament at the Ricoh Arena.<\/p>\n
Reigning champion Michael van Gerwen began his title defence with a comfortable 6-3 defeat of Lithuania’s Darius Labanauskas.<\/p>\n
The world number one continued his return to form with an average of 103.34, missing just one double attempt on his way to victory.<\/p>\n
Van Gerwen will now face Jonny Clayton in the second round after the Welsh World Cup winner defeated Mickey Mansell 6-2.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am starting to be more consistent again and the ton plus averages are coming back,\u201d said Van Gerwen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know this year has not been good for me but I understand I need to do things differently and I am starting to do the right things at the right moments.<\/p>\n
\u201cJonny is a good player and I need to perform if I am going to beat him.”<\/p>\n
Number one seed Peter Wright enjoyed a perfect night on the doubles, hitting all six of his attempts at the outer ring to defeat Ryan Meikle is a deciding leg.<\/p>\n
Meikle took out 167 to force a last-leg shoot-out but, the World Champion broke throw in the final leg to set up a second round tie with Simon Whitlock.<\/p>\n
The Australian, a semi-finalist at the Grand Slam progressed with a 6-4 win over Adrian Lewis 6-4, who punished missed doubles form the two-time World Champion.<\/p>\n
World number three Gerwyn Price will face Jamie Hughes on Saturday after the pair picked up 6-2 wins against John Henderson and Ricky Evans.<\/p>\n
Michael Smith defied an average of 108 from Boris Krcmar to progress to round two, beating the Croatian in a last-leg decider.<\/p>\n
Finishes of 142 and 145 were the memorable moments for Smith as he survived a scare to set up a clash with Gary Anderson, who recovered from 4-1 down to defeat Keegan Brown 6-4.<\/p>\n
Rob Cross and Joe Cullen will face-off in round two after the pair secured 6-3 wins against Jason Lowe and Adam Hunt and respectively.<\/p>\n
Cross averaged just under 100 on his way to round two, while Cullen scored a second win over Adam Hunt in as many weeks, repeating the result at the Grand Slam of Darts.<\/p>\n
Premier League runner-up Nathan Aspinall will take on Ross Smith in the second round on Saturday after surviving five match darts in a dramatic deciding leg against Scott Waites.<\/p>\n
Newly-crowned Grand Slam champion Jose de Sousa kept his winning run going on the Coventry stage with a 6-3 defeat of Belgium’s Mike de Decker.<\/p>\n
An average of 97 was enough for the rising Portuguese star, who will now take on Vincent van der Voort who defeated fellow-Dutchman Derk Telnekes 6-2.<\/p>\n
Glen Durrant was dumped out by Wayne Jones, who averaged 100 in his 6-3 win over the out-of-form Premier League champion.<\/p>\n
Former Matchplay quarter-finalist Jeffrey de Zwaan awaits Jones in round two after he beat Darren Webster 6-3.<\/p>\n
Ross Smith booked his place in Saturday\u2019s action with a thumping 6-1 win over Kim Huybrechts, while World Grand Prix runner-up Dirk van Duijvenbode continued his impressive run of form, beating William O\u2019Connor 6-4.<\/p>\n
His opponent in round two will be Dutch youngster Niels Zonnerveld who sprung the surprise of the day with a 6-3 victory over Grand Slam runner-up James Wade.<\/p>\n
Ian White and Gabriel Clemens will be first to take to the stage on Saturday afternoon at the Ricoh Arena after White defeated William Borland 6-4 and Gabriel Clemens overcame Martijn Kleermaker 6-5.<\/p>\n
Luke Humphries will also be back in action on Saturday after impressing in a 6-3 win against in-form Devon Petersen.<\/p>\n
Jermain Wattimena will be Humphries’ opponent in round two after a superb 103 average put Irish Ace Steve Lennon to the sword in a 6-1 win.<\/p>\n
2018 champion Daryl Gurney’s bad run of form continued as he was knocked out on day one, averaging just 81 in a 6-2 defeat by Callan Rydz.<\/p>\n
World Matchplay Champion Dimitri van den Bergh was also beaten in round one, with Ryan Searle securing a 6-2 victory to set up a tie with Rydz.<\/p>\n
Mervyn King averaged over 105 in his victory over Dave Chisnall, eventually running out a 6-3 winner in an incredibly impressive performance.<\/p>\n
King takes on Danny Noppert in round two after the Dutchman averaged 100 in his 6-1 win over Steve Beaton.<\/p>\n
Damon Heta continued his good run of form with a 6-1 win over Maik Kuivenhoven. The Australian will face Ryan Murray in round two after the Scot recovered from 3-1 down to beat Stephen Bunting 6-4.<\/p>\n
Luke Woodhouse and Andy Boulton will face off in round two after 6-4 wins over Brendan Dolan and Ryan Joyce respectively.<\/p>\n
Karel Sedlacek upset the odds to beat Krzystof Ratajski and his reward is a second round encounter with Madars Razma who overcame Chris Dobey in a 6-3 win.<\/p>\n
Saturday sees the second round take place in the afternoon session and the third round in the evening session, with play continuing across two stages.<\/p>\n
Ladbrokes Players Championship Finals Stage Two<\/strong> Evening Session Stage Two<\/strong> Saturday November 28 Stage Two<\/strong> Third Round Stage Two<\/strong> The world’s top six players made it safely through to round two as the Ladbrokes Players Championship Finals kicked-off in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[943,124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-results"],"lang":"en","translations":{"en":2461,"de":2464},"pll_sync_post":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2461"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2461"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2463,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2461\/revisions\/2463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nFriday November 27
\nFirst Round
\nAfternoon Session
\nMain Stage<\/strong>
\nDirk van Duijvenbode 6-4 William O’Connor
\nMichael Smith 6-5 Boris Krcmar
\nRob Cross 6-3 Jason Lowe
\nJoe Cullen 6-3 Adam Hunt
\nLuke Humphries 6-3 Devon Petersen
\nRyan Searle 6-2 Dimitri Van den Bergh
\nSimon Whitlock 6-4 Adrian Lewis
\nMervyn King 6-3 Dave Chisnall<\/p>\n
\nLuke Woodhouse 6-4 Brendan Dolan
\nAndy Boulton 6-4 Ryan Joyce
\nRyan Murray 6-4 Stephen Bunting
\nKarel Sedlacek 6-4 Krzysztof Ratajski
\nGabriel Clemens 6-5 Martijn Kleermaker
\nIan White 6-4 William Borland
\nJonny Clayton 6-2 Mickey Mansell
\nCallan Rydz 6-2 Daryl Gurney<\/p>\n
\nMain Stage<\/strong>
\nNathan Aspinall 6-5 Scott Waites
\nGary Anderson 6-4 Keegan Brown
\nNiels Zonneveld 6-3 James Wade
\nPeter Wright 6-5 Ryan Meikle
\nMichael van Gerwen 6-3 Darius Labanauskas
\nGerwyn Price 6-2 John Henderson
\nJose De Sousa 6-3 Mike De Decker<\/p>\n
\nVincent van der Voort 6-2 Derk Telnekes
\nJamie Hughes 6-2 Ricky Evans
\nRoss Smith 6-1 Kim Huybrechts
\nDamon Heta 6-1 Maik Kuivenhoven
\nJermaine Wattimena 6-4 Steve Lennon
\nMadars Razma 6-3 Chris Dobey
\nWayne Jones 6-3 Glen Durrant
\nJeffrey de Zwaan 6-3 Darren Webster
\nDanny Noppert 6-1 Steve Beaton<\/p>\n
\nSecond Round
\nAfternoon Session (1245 GMT)
\nMain Stage<\/strong>
\nIan White v Gabriel Clemens
\nNathan Aspinall v Ross Smith
\nMichael Smith v Gary Anderson
\nJoe Cullen v Rob Cross
\nDe Sousa v Vincent Van der Voort
\nMichael Van Gerwen v Jonny Clayton
\nGerwyn Price v Jamie Hughes
\nPeter Wright v Simon Whitlock<\/p>\n
\nLuke Woodhouse v Andy Boulton
\nKarel Sedlacek v Madars Razma
\nRyan Searle v Callan Rydz
\nDamon Heta v Ryan Murray
\nDanny Noppert v Mervyn King
\nJermaine Wattimena v Luke Humphries
\nWayne Jones v Jeffrey De Zwaan
\nNiels Zonneveld v Dirk van Duijvenbode<\/p>\n
\nEvening Session (1900 GMT)
\nMain Stage<\/strong>
\nMichael Smith\/Gary Anderson v De Sousa\/Vincent Van der Voort
\nGerwyn Price\/Jamie Hughes v Jermaine Wattimena\/Luke Humphries
\nPeter Wright\/Simon Whitlock v Ryan Searle\/Callan Rydz
\nMichael van Gerwen\/Jonny Clayton v Wayne Jones\/Jeffrey de Zwaan<\/p>\n
\nIan White\/Gabriel Clemens v Joe Cullen\/Rob Cross
\nNathan Aspinall\/Ross Smith v Damon Heta\/Ryan Murray
\nKarel Sedlacek\/Madars Razma v Danny Noppert\/Mervyn King
\nNiels Zonneveld\/Dirk van Duijvenbode v Luke Woodhouse\/Andy Boulton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"